The Last Supper: Stephen Peter Morin
Serial killer Stephen Peter Morin has been called a chameleon. Operating under a string of aliases, Morin drifted across the United States throughout the 70s and 80s, murdering, raping, and torturing as many as 30 women (although he was ultimately convicted of only 4 murders).
Morin claimed he was converted to Christianity by his final kidnapping victim, Margaret Mayfield Palm. Morin abducted Palm at gunpoint and the two drove aimlessly for some 10 hours while Palm read bible verses from a handwritten journal and played tapes by the Rev. Kenneth Copeland, a Texas evangelist.
Morin was sentenced to death by lethal injection for his crimes. His final statement was a prayer, imploring God to forgive his executioners. His final words were: “Lord Jesus, I commit my soul to you.” As a result of Morin’s lifelong drug abuse, it would take nearly 45 minutes for medics to find a vein suitable for the lethal injection cocktail. He was pronounced dead at 12:55 a.m. on March 3, 1985.
Morin fasted in the days leading up to his execution.
His requested final meal was “bread without yeast”.
Symbolism and Interpretation
Many have questioned the sincerity of Morin’s faith. Chris Clark, whose mother had dated Morin, interprets Morin’s religiosity as follows: “He wanted to manipulate the cloying, puling conservative Christians in the Texas penal system: what better method than ostentatiously coming to Jesus?” (Clark writes about his haunting experiences with Morin in this piece, published in the Guardian.) And there is certainly good reason for this kind of skepticism; Morin had spent years living under false identities, lying, and manipulating those around him to serve his own less-than-noble interests. Indeed, Margaret Mayfield Palm’s account of how she converted Morin from a brutal sociopath to a devout servant of God during the course of a 10 hour car ride would arguably be more plausibly interpreted as deceptive manipulation than as an honest spiritual awakening. Furthermore, much of the narrative surrounding Morin’s post-arrest morality does not stand up to scrutiny. It’s often claimed that Morin’s guilty plea represents an acceptance of his sins and demonstrates the sincerity of his newfound faith; however, prior to his indictment Morin engaged in a slew of obstructionist legal tactics in an effort to delay the proceedings. Morin also notably failed to cooperate with police, refusing to provide any details about either his convicted murders, or the many more murders he was suspected of having committed.
For me, the sincerity of Morin’s religious convictions are immaterial. I see little value in speculating on the contents of the hearts and minds of strangers. Given Morin’s sudden conversion to Christianity, it is perhaps relevant to quote the bible on the subject of the contents of the hearts of men:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
— Jeremiah 17:9
In this arrangement Morin’s unleavened bread sits amongst a collection of empty vessels — a reference to his period of religious fasting. The scene is grey. Brutally grey. Very nearly monochrome. I wanted to convey something impersonal, anonymous, malleable. The candle, extinguished, representing death, is the only element of this composition that competes with Morin’s unleavened bread for the attention of the viewer. This seems fitting.